A GUIDE TO PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTING A COOPERATIVE ... · ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION TRAINING IN...

P R O G R A M M E G U I D E

A GUIDE TO PLANNING ANDIMPLEMENTING A COOPERATIVE

ENTREPRENEURSHIPEDUCATION TRAINING IN

HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

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Disclaimer:

The work presented on this document has received funding from the European Union (Grant agreement

N. SI2.753470). The content doesn’t necessarily represent the opinion of the European Commission (EC),

and the EC is not responsible for any use that might be made of the information contained.

Copyright notes:

Text content and graphical materials are subject to the Creative Commons license (Attribution-

NonCommercial-NoDerivatives) by ECOOPE.

This deliverable contains original unpublished work except where clearly indicated otherwise.

Acknowledgement of previously published material and of the work of others has been made through

appropriate citation, quotation or both. Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.

Date of publication: May 2018

Written by: José Carlos Ceballos (CISE)

Reviewed support by: José Ignacio Rodríguez, Kerstin Maier and Rafael Ruiz Bada (CISE), Amanda Besson,

Angela Colebrook and Sarah Alldred (Co-operative College), Ilana Gotz and Paolo Fontana (EURICSE),

João José Pinto Ferreira and Nuno Soares (Faculty of Engineering - UPORTO), Manuela Pinto (Faculty of

Arts and Humanities - UPORTO) and Ellin McCallum.

This document was produced as part of the work package on Innovative EU Training Model – University

level.

Coordinated by Centro Internacional Santander Emprendimiento (CISE), with the support of Co-operative

College, European Research Institute on Co-operative and Social Enterprises (EURICSE) and University of

Porto (UPORTO) as part of the ECOOPE project.

Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to the following people and organisations for their input and participation in the

implementation of the pilot experience that we developed during February and March 2018:

* Aday Guerra, Ander Izquierdo, Asier López, David Harrison, Kate Whittle, María Montesinos, Ronny

Conde and Sain Milena López

* Benedetta Mantoan, Cristina Luca de Tena, David Gutiérrez, Elisa Schweigkofler, Estanislao Gamero,

Inés Martínez, Leire Ahedo, Liliana Raquel Lemos da Silva, Luis de Pedro, Nadja Planötscher, Samantha

Nordland and Samuele Verucchi.

* Adega Cooperativa de Mesão Frio (Portugal), Cooperativa Siete Valles de Montaña (Spain), Cooperativa

de Enseñanza El Salvador (Spain), Fundación Espriu (Spain), Hospital Moncloa (Spain) and SUMA

Wholefoods (England)

* ACEL (Cooperativas y Sociedades Laborales de Cantabria) and AECOSAL (Asociación Empresarial de

Cooperativas y Sociedades Laborales de Cantabria)

ECOOPE PROJECT HAS RECEIVED FUNDING FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION UNDER GRANT AGREEMENT NO SI2.753470

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INDEX

1. Introduction to ECOOPE

2. ECOOPE’s innovative training model for Higher Education institutions

3. Programme Overview

4. Participants

4. 1 Co-operatives

4. 1. 1 Co-operative Selection

4. 1. 2 Requirements

4. 1. 3 Co-operative Tutor s Role

4. 2 Students

4. 2. 1 Candidate Selection

4. 2. 2 Requirements

4. 2. 3 Building the teams

4. 2. 4 Mentor’s role

5. The training phase

5. 1 Introduction to ECOOPE/Teambuilding

5. 2 Understanding co-operatives and diving into their principles and values

5. 3 Complex problem-solving methodology, DESIGN THINKING

5. 4 Business model as a value creation tool

5. 5 Working Plan

6. The co-operative experience phases

6. 1 Observation phase and challenge definition

6. 1. 1 Observation phase

6. 1. 2 Challenge definition

6. 2 Ideation and prototyping phase

6. 3 Pitching phase

6. 4 Knowledge gathering

7. Conclusions and recommendations

8. Annexes

ANNEX 1: The co-operative values and principles

ANNEX 2: Areas and competences of the EntreComp conceptual model

ANNEX 3: Literature

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INTRODUCTION TO ECOOPE PROJECTCo-funded by the European Union, the Entrepreneurial Co-operative Experience (ECOOPE) project responds to the objective of raising awareness, interest and knowledge on the values of the co-operative business model and its potential to tackle European youth unemployment. We promote the co-operative business model among young future entrepreneurs, helping them to develop a capacity to put innovative ideas into sustainable and realistic actions. Our main goal is to improve the employability of European youth, providing them with tools and experiences necessary to structure and implement projects and giving them access to a viable business model with opportunities for job creation, especially in those countries with high rates of unemployment.

ECOOPE involves eight institutions from five different European countries: Santander International Entrepreneurship Centre (Centro Internacional Santander Emprendimiento, CISE) and the University of Cantabria, our leading partners, and Valnalón from Spain; Co-operative College from the United Kingdom; the European Research Institute on Co-operative and Social Enterprises (Euricse) from Italy; Lappeenranta University of Technology (Finland); and the Policy Experimentation and Evaluation Platform (PEEP) and the University of Porto, from Portugal

All our partners are experts in entrepreneurship or in the co-operative business model. Both have shown their efficiency and resilience during the economic crisis and therefore ECOOPE identifies the need to bring them together, as they represent the best way to reduce European youth unemployment rates.

We think that this project provides a chance to explore the opportunities that co-operatives might bring as an alternative form of employment to the European labour market, and to benefit co-operatives with the incorporation of design thinking and innovative models. Young entrepreneurs with new ideas and solutions will become part of the co-operative sector, either as co-operators themselves or as conscious members of their communities.

By introducing co-operation as a valid business model at secondary and higher education levels we aim to raise awareness that co-operatives provide an effective option for young entrepreneurs to work together across Europe, linked also with different areas and competences defined by the European Union’s EntreComp model

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ECOOPE’S INNOVATIVE TRAINING MODEL FOR HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONSECOOPE has the main goal of promoting entrepreneurship through co-operative business models to improve the employability of European young people. To contribute to this objective, we have designed a highly innovative co-operative entrepreneurial programme that provides the participants with the competencies, tools and resources required to succeed in a co-operative entrepreneurial venture, either creating a co-operative or contributing to the co-operative economy in some other way.

This ECOOPE training model enables young people to:

a. Understand the co-operative culture and how co-operatives business models are implemented

b. Foster entrepreneurial skills

c. Develop complex problem-solving skills

At the same time, the ECOOPE training model provides an opportunity for the co operatives participating to connect with young talent and solve business challenges in an innovative way. For example, during the implementation of the pilot experience for testing the proposed methodology, the collaborating co-operatives got from the students’ teams solutions for improving their communication’s strategies, for making the community aware of the added value of their products, the management of the customers’ experience, or even the creation of totally new products focused on young consumers. All from an innovative and design thinking perspective.

Based on the outcomes of the research conducted by the ECOOPE consortium we designed an intensive “Erasmus co-operative intra-entrepreneur” pilot programme for testing the methodology proposed in the programme. Selected university students and recent graduates received a scholarship to spend 5 weeks of training and work experience in different European co-operatives. Organised into teams of 4, participants from different countries and a range of disciplines embarked upon several challenges identified by the co-operatives, making recommendations and proposing innovative solutions. After the implementation of the pilot experience, analysis of the results and review of feedback from the co-operatives and the participants, we validated the proposed methodology and refined the training model proposed.

This training programme assumes entrepreneurship as a competence (European Commission, 2016), aiming to disseminate at the same time the co-operative model and values. The implementation is aligned with the EntreComp conceptual model, putting more emphasis on one or the other areas depending on the different phases.

It provides university students with a first professional experience in a co-operative environment whilst providing co-operatives with young and creative undergraduate talent. The result is a potential generational renewal with an increased capacity for students to set-up their own co-operative or collaborating with existing ones. In turn this would lead to an increased healthy competition between co-operatives and other enterprises across Europe.

The ECOOPE training model has been designed in such a way that it is easily adaptable not only to educational institutions but also to non-traditional educational contexts such as local Development and Employment Agencies and non-governmental organisations. The project team has identified all these institutions as being highly relevant in tackling youth unemployment through their training and support programmes

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PROGRAMME OVERVIEW The training programme we propose is divided in two phases: firstly, the training and secondly, the co-operative experience. It is designed to take into consideration not only the advantages of the co-operative business model but also its values and social benefits.

As mentioned previously, this training programme is devised as a resource for the educational programmes offered by European Secondary and Higher Education institutions, as well as to be easily adapted by other organisations interested in co-operative entrepreneurship and social economy.

It is designed for young university students and for the collaboration of local co-operatives. The methodology is flexible to be easily adapted to different academic and socio-economic backgrounds, and it is based on two concepts:

1) The co-operative sector represents a viable, resilient and sustainable business model for young entrepreneurs, whom mainly don’t know about this option and therefore don’t consider it in their projects and initiatives.

2) The Lean Start-up methodology, together with other entrepreneurial tools and skills, represents a real option for the co-operatives to find innovative solutions to existing problems. The involvement of young entrepreneurs provides an opportunity to enrich the social base, enhance innovation and creative thinking and thus generate ideas for new products, new markets or an evolution of existing ones.

FIRST PHASE: THE TRAINING

During the first phase of the training programme students will be structured into teams. They will receive information about co-operatives, co-operative values and principles and provided with tools to support complex problem-solving and work planning. It is recommended that this phase is delivered through a series of separate sessions with sufficient time between each topic for participants to obtain a deep knowledge and understanding.

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INTRO TO THE PROGRAMME /

TEAM BUILDING

UNDESTANDING THE CO-OPERATIVES AND

THEIR VALUES

DESIGN THINKING

BUSINESSMODEL

WORKING PLAN

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SECOND PHASE: THE TRAINING

During the second phase of the ECOOPE training model, each of the teams will be integrated in a co-operative to solve a challenge that they will define together, according to their skills and profiles, time available and knowledge of the actual needs of the co-operative. The challenge will be the guiding thread of the experience and, based on a learning-by doing philosophy, the participants will study in depth the co-operative model and how a co-op works. At the same time, the co-operative will benefit from the skills and ideas of young people with their fresh outlook and entrepreneurial skills. This approach therefore, will help to give a more innovative and feasible solution to a strategical challenge.

It is strongly recommended that the co-operative members that take part in the second phase of the training attend the training along with the participants. This will enable them to receive the same information about tools and techniques as the student teams. This will help to ensure a common understanding for approaching the challenges presented by the co-operative enterprises during the work experience phase.

For the programme to be successful it is essential that the co-operatives involved are briefed to ensure that:

• a team working environment is created• participants understand the context in which the co-operative operates • problem solving methodologies are encouraged, and • hands-on involvement and contact with the staff and members of the co-operative

is provided

The first step of the co-operative experience phase consists of gaining a clear understanding of the co-operative and analysis of the needs and possible challenges to solve. At this time the team also creates a network with the members of the co-operative. The challenge will be to identify an innovative solution to a strategic problem and will be selected together by the co-operative and the team taking into consideration the results of the observation phase, as well as the team members’ skills and background. It must be not only being feasible to find a solution during the experience time, but also provide a stimulating experience for the participants.

Once the challenge is identified, the team will apply the lean start-up and design thinking methodologies for finding suitable solutions. Here participants starting by developing different and imaginative ideas and, after a process of hypothesis, validation and prototyping, select the best solution for the co-operative to implement. The final step of the co-operative experience consists of the pitching of the proposed solution. During this process participants share their ideas with representatives from the -host organisation to help them to understand the challenge, the approach to finding solutions and the options for solving the problem. In this phase the young people must clearly demonstrate their understanding of how the solution they are pitching is aligned with the strategy of the co-operative.

After the work experience stage in the co-operatives, all the teams will gather to collect all the knowledge developed during the whole experience.

The ECOOPE training programme is based also on the principle of proximity to maximise the benefits of the experience, without losing the European dimension. If the participants collaborate with local co-operatives (this doesn’t mean that their business must only operate locally, on the contrary) and get to know the co-operative sector in their area, it will be easier for them to understand the context and the reality of these businesses, and therefore, also easier for the teams to find suitable solutions for the challenges.

Getting to know more about local actors will help the participants to get involved in the future in the co-operative model that surrounds them and will also facilitate them to become more conscious members of the community, applying and promoting the co-operative values

OBSERVATION AND CHALLENGE

DEFINITION

IDEA GENERATION AND PROTOTYPING

PITCHINGKNOWLEDGE GATHERING

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PARTICIPANTSThere are different actors that we need to identify and select for the implementation of our programme. Obviously, we need a group of students interested in entrepreneurship, the co-operative model and social economy. We also need to be strategic in our selection of the experts that will implement the training and will give support to the teams during the practical experience, as well as the co-operatives and their key members that will collaborate with us during the whole process.

4. 1 .- CO - OPER ATIVES

4.1.1.- Co-operative Selection

Selecting the co-operatives to participate in the challenge is the first step. Those that need to find new solutions and are also ready to implement them should be the best candidates. Each team, with a maximum of 4 participants, will collaborate with one co-operative, so the number of co-ops to be selected will vary depending on the number of teams.

It is recommended to have one co-operative per team, although more than one team can be host by the same co-op if they are working on different challenges.

Each co-operative will work together with the student’s team on a challenge to be solved, proposed by the participants after the observation phase (see 6.1 Observation phase and challenge definition). The challenge will have to be big enough to be solved by the group during the duration of the experience, should be relevant for the co-operative, and the solution should not be too easy or obvious. Thus, the co-operative will be involved in seeking out the solution and will collaborate with the team during the whole process. A wider description of the challenge will be mentioned in the Co-operative Experience section.

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Necessary Criteria:

• The co-operatives involved in the programme should have a minimum of 3 years’ experience, at a stage where management dynamics are established.

• One member of each co-operative must be directly committed with each of the teams, being available for them during a minimum number of hours per week (see 4.1.3 Co-operative Tutor’s Role). This tutor will be responsible for hosting the team and arranging contact with the rest of the key people in the co-operative involved in the experience and the challenge. The tutor will guide them, whilst at the same time allowing the team to explore their own path.

• A minimum availability of the tutor should be 4 hours/week.

• The tutor will guide the team in three key periods:

1. When they have finished the observation stage, helping them to validate their conclusions.

2. Helping them to draft the reports that the team will have to deliver.

3. Helping them to select the ideas to be prototyped after the Ideation stage, and in the selection of the best solution later.

4. Agreeing the implementation plan with the team.

Desirable Criteria

• SMEs: it is desirable that the co-operative selected is a small and medium organisation (SME) as the immersion process of the team will be deeper as normally there is more interaction between the members, and the team will be able to better understand how the co-operative works.

• Local presence: the co-operative has a presence in the nearby area, so the participants can better understand the context and the co-operative members can participate in the training phase, giving information about their own business and the sector, but also having a clear understanding of the methodology.

• International co-operative: having a local presence certainly does not mean that the strategy has to be limited to local. On the contrary, it would enrich the experience if the co-op has an international market or an international strategy, or if this is something it is open to. The co-operative could operate in different countries or serve a variety of customers from different countries.

• Take part in disseminating the co-operative model and values.

• Entrepreneurship projects: the co-operative has experience developing new business, exploring new business models or has implemented new innovations in their processes. The co-operative has experience launching new products/services.

• Innovation/Entrepreneurship tools management: the co-operative understands the design thinking process and has experience of using the business model canvas. The co-operative is used to prototype processes/products and uses them to develop itself.

4.2.2.- Requirements

The co-operatives will be a key element in the programme during both phases, the training and the experience.

During the training they will collaborate in “Understanding the co-operatives and diving into their principles and values” helping the participants to understand the reality of the sector and will share their experiences with the students, complementing the expert’s lessons. Also, during this phase visits to their facilities could be arranged.

We consider it very important that at least one member of the co-operative (preferably the future tutor) also attends the expert’s lessons so he/she can have a clear understanding of the methodology and the phases the team will be undertaking during the whole experience.

But of course, it will be during the Co-operative Experience phase that they will have a bigger commitment:

• Each co-operative will host at least one team of 3-4 participants (if the co-operative has enough resources could host more than one team, but this would mean that each team will have one tutor and will work on different challenges). The team will work in the co-operative’s facilities.

• The co-operative will provide the team members with a work place during the whole practical experience, as well as internet access. Also, they will designate a co-operator and/or staff member that will fulfil the functions of the “tutor”, who will dedicate a minimum of four hours per week to guide the team through the milestones

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established for the achievement of a possible solution to the challenge, providing them with all the information needed for that objective.

• The co-operative has no obligation to implement the solution designed by the team to the proposed challenge, although the objective is to work on a real strategic need to find a viable innovative solution. This solution will be at the co-operative’s disposal for its future modification or adaptation if the co-op considers it’s useful.

• The co-operatives should sign an agreement for co-operation with the entity that promotes the experience, so both parties can have a clear understanding of the requirements.

4.1.3.- Co-operative Tutor s Role

The tutor is a key figure that will dedicate time to explain the current situation of the co-operative to the team, creating an in-depth understanding of the situation and sharing the mission, vision and values of the co-op with the team, as well as the future plans, the target customers, the added value of the co-operative and the future possibilities.

The tutor will be a full co-operative member, preferably part of the everyday governing body or management team, and directly related to the challenge the team will be working on.

The tutor will host the team within the co-operative, especially in the first few days, and will create links to the key people inside and outside the co-operative and the team.

The tutor will dedicate a minimum of 4 hours per week with the team to support them and validate their ongoing achievements. The tutor will connect with the mentors (see 4.2.4. The mentor’s role) to guide the team towards finding the most suitable solution for the co-operative.

The tutor will have the responsibility to read and review the reports done by the team

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Necessary Criteria:

• English level: as the experience has an international component and goal, candidates should have at least a B2 English level.

• The candidate is ready to connect with other people, get on with them, and can create a team dynamic in the programme.

• Self-responsibility: the candidate will have responsibility for the project and for the team. The candidate will have the right working culture to finish the task and action agreed by the team on time to the right standard.

Desirable Criteria

• Studies: the candidate has completed one entrepreneurial program and/or social economy studies previously.

• Curiosity: the candidates are curious to look for innovations in their daily lives. They don’t give up when they don’t find an obvious solution for the challenge.

• Creativity: the candidate tries to find the best solution and doesn’t resort to previous solutions; the candidate knows different creativity techniques.

• Initiative: the candidate is able to work without supervision and has the initiative to take action.

• The candidate wants to develop their entrepreneurial skills in depth.

• The candidates want to challenge themselves with a real co-operative challenge.

• Open minded: the candidate is someone that has fun exploring and seeking improvement.

• Not afraid of failing.

• Eager to work in multicultural environments.

4. 2 .- STUDENTS

4.2.1.- Candidate Selection

Although this programme can also benefit the co-operatives and the local social economy, it is clear that our main target and beneficiaries are the students and entrepreneurs that will participate in the experience and will dedicate their time to the training and the practical experience in the co-operatives.

If we are incorporating ECOOPE’s training programme in an existing educational experience, we can focus the selection of candidates on the ones already involved, but if we are starting a new initiative from the beginning, there are some criteria and selection processes that we recommend to ensure they match the needs of the parts involved, including a compromise to finish the programme, as it is going to boost their entrepreneurial and co-operative skills.

First of all, we need the candidates to submit their curriculum vitae and a covering letter, answering two main questions:

• Why is this programme important for you?

• How can this programme help to achieve your goals?

In the case of the pilot experience the selection was made analysing all the applications received and assigning a score based on the available data, to make a pre-selection and then a personal interview according to the following criteria:

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This is the score assigned to each of the necessary criteria, complemented with the desirable ones using the information obtained during the interviews:

This score is adaptable to each situation, for example, if we already know the type of co-operative that is going to collaborate in the experience, we can introduce additional criteria such as the candidate’s areas of expertise. We can include some additional criteria suggested by the collaborating co-operatives but always trying to obtain a balanced evaluation, as this programme does not intend to implement a “classic” internship model.

CANDIDATES SELECTION SCORE

0-30 · Entrepreneurial studies: the candidate has completed entrepreneurial programmes and/or social economy studies. (Max 30 points)

Master or similar: 10-15

- Entrepreneurial studies: 10

- SE or Co-operative studies: 10

- Both: 15

Additional training courses (less than 1 month): 1-5

- One week: 1

- Two weeks: 2

- Three weeks: 4

- Four weeks: 5

Additional training courses (between 1 to 4 months): 5-10

- One month: 5

- Two months: 6

- Three months: 8

- Four months or more: 10

5-25 · Fluent in English: must have a good level in speaking, reading and writing. (Less than B2 will be considered as an excluding factor)

B2: 5 points

C1: 15 points

C2: 25 points

0-15 · Knowledge of co-operatives / social economy.

Basic knowledge: 0-5

Collaboration with co-ops: 5-10

Co-operative member: 10-15

0-30 · Motivation

Just checking: 0-5

Future entrepreneurship project: 5-20

Creating a co-operative: 20-30

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4.2.2.- Requirements

To receive the certification/diploma that proves that the participant has finished the programme, we recommend they sign a document prior to the experience outlining some terms and conditions. The following are an adaptation of some of the ones we established for the pilot programme, as an example.

The participants were required to comply with the following requirements:

• Attend and complete the full-time training programme, beginning ……. and finishing ……. All conflicts of availability need to be approved previously.

• Attend and complete the full-time ……. experience in one of the collaborating co-operatives, beginning ……. and finishing ……. All conflicts of availability need to be approved previously.

• Actively participate and collaborate as an individual participant and as part of a team in the writing and delivery of reports and deliverables related to the activities as outlined in the pilot programme, as well as delivering the evaluation questionnaires and experience reports to ECOOPE necessary for the correct evaluation of the programme. Also, to collaborate with the ECOOPE team in the dissemination of the objectives of this experience.

• ECOOPE will provide participation certificates to all participants upon completion of the programme in compliance with the commitments acquired.

• The participant accepts and knows that her/his personal data will be incorporated into an automated data file whose purpose is to inform her/him about the organisation of similar events by ECOOPE’s consortium members.

• The participant authorises ECOOPE to use her/his personal image from the photographs or videos produced during the activities resulting from the development of the training programme and experience, always with the purpose of informing or advertising ECOOPE’s activities. This authorisation has no time limit and is not restricted to the national scope of any country.

• In addition, the candidates previously received a Rules of Procedure document that contained all the information about the selection process and the goals of ECOOPE.

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4.2.3.- Building the teams

The ECOOPE programme is based on the philosophy of co-operation, collaboration and team work. The participants will work during the whole experience in teams, so it is very important to make sure these have a balanced composition, taking into consideration different aspects such as their own interests and motivations as individuals, as well as their skills and aptitudes.

We recommend observing and analysing the participants behaviour during the first sessions of the training process, using teambuilding dynamics that will allow interaction between participants. For example, cooking together as a team represents a good exercise that can include identification of the required ingredients, designing the recipe and defining different solutions.

All these dynamics will help to choose different groups of participants, teams balanced with members with different skills and background that can complement each other and work together towards a common goal. ECOOPE’s training programme dedicates a stage to understanding what a team is and how to work in them (see 5.1.2 Teambuilding).

4.2.4.- Mentor s Role

The mentors are experts who can accelerate the team’s evolution, coach them in using the theoretical knowledge they have acquired and assure the quality of the deliverable documents for the co-operatives.

These experts can be, for example, the same ones that will implement the different training lessons, so they can give support on each of the topics needed by the team but also know about the team members in advance, the participating co-operatives, and the methodology used.

We recommend designing a mentorship calendar, with established hours and topics per week, so the teams can use these hours to solve specific issues, like an online coaching service.

The mentor must be aware of the status of the team and the team members, identifying weaknesses, delays and problems. They also must encourage the team towards sharing their bigger achievements with the rest of the teams solving challenges and creating a learning environment.

The mentors will also be connected with the co-operative tutors, so they can assist them in order to give better feedback to the team and guide them through the experience.

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Guidelines

• Understanding the team needs to guide them towards solving the challenge.

• Assessing the situation of the team and removing any possible barriers for its development.

• Creating a sense of urgency in the team so they will not delay in the solution, having time for the best outcome.

• Guiding the team in the design thinking process, advising them with the tools that can be helpful in the process.

• Having a good relationship with the co-operative tutor to create team spirit and the right outcome of the project for the co-operative.

• Guiding the team in reporting and assuring a quality and accuracy to meet the co-operative’s expectations.

Expertise

• Team development

• Co-operative model and values

• Design thinking and Lean Start-up methodologies

• Facilitators with experience of business strategy tools

• Experts with both teaching and field experience

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THE TRAINING PHASE

LEARNING SPACES

The length of the ECOOPE programme can be adapted to the needs and reality of each of the organising institutions, although all the stages need to be implemented, in a recommended order. Nevertheless, according to the feedback and learning from the implementation of the pilot experience, we consider that four months is the ideal time-scale for the whole programme. In both “The Training Phase” and “The Co-operative Experience Phase” sections in this guide we recommend the length and division of each stage as follows.

The Training Phase is divided in five stages focused on understanding the whole programme and all the topics that the participants will work on during the experience:

Each stage consists of several sessions/workshops and some exercises determined by the experts, as well as visits to local co-operatives facilities. We recommend each stage to be carried out over the course of one week, to have enough time for implementing not only the sessions but also the visits, and for the students to have time to process the information and gain a deeper understanding.

By following this methodology, the students will not only get to know the co-operative business model and values, with special focus in their local context. They will also be taught design thinking and business planning tools, using examples from the co-operative sector that later will be applied during the practical experience in collaboration with those organisations. So, at the end, we can talk about “co-design thinking” and “co-planning”, as collaboration is the base of the philosophy of this training.

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INTO TO THE PROGRAMME /

TEAM BUILDING

UNDERSTANDING CO-OPERATIVES AND

THEIR VALUES

DESIGN THINKING

BUSINESSMODEL

WORKING PLAN

STAGE 1 STAGE 2 STAGE 3 STAGE 4 STAGE 5

5. 1 .- INTRODUCTION TO ECOOPE/TEAMBUILDING

The first stage of the training phase is divided in two parts: understanding the programme and building the teams.

5.1.1.- Introduction to ECOOPE

Objectives

• The first stage of the ECOOPE training phase has the main goal of understanding what the programme is for, why we are here, who we are and what is expected from each participant.

• Describing explicit rules to be followed during the programme and defining a framework where all participants feel safe and committed should be an output.

Skills to be developed

Participants will:

1. Know what ECOOPE is and why it is worthwhile

2. Know all the stakeholders involved, their role during the process and the expectations of the programme each one has

3. Know all the other team members and start creating a learning community

4. Understand the methodology, dynamics and timeline of the programme

EntreComp Areas and

Competences related

1.3 Vision

Duration One session

Description

STRUCTURE/CONTENT:

This session will be focused on understanding ECOOPE and the formal structure of the programme, the way it works, who to contact and the main practicalities.

• The main issues covered in this part of the session will be the following:

• Why we are here: “Start with Why” theory will be analysed, as well as the types of alternative solutions it can bring about. Understand the role the co-operatives in the socio-economic reality.

• Who we are: Understanding the different actors taking part in the programme, and what the main role each one plays: students, co-operatives, educational institutions, mentors, etc.

• Getting to know each other: Ice breaking games; all participants will get to know each other’s names, and background using games/tools. and so on via some tools.

• Blue Ocean Matrix: Analysing and using some Blue Ocean Strategy theories from a practical perspective, making a matrix with a common picture of what needs to be eliminated, reduced, increased and created which will make participants aware of the relevance of their solution.

• Interdependence: The session ends with an activity that creates an interdependence and feeling of community.

• As well as learning basic tools, we will learn and start using Pre-Motorola and Post-Motorola, using them as the guiding exercises for the session.

Expert profile

The coordinator of the first stage must be someone with a deep understanding of the co-operatives, but also of the programme, the needs of the participants and the outputs that are expected, not only for the participants, but also from the co-operatives and institutions involved.

The coordinator will have at least the following experience:

• Experience in team development

• Experience as a teacher

• Experience in a learning organisation

• Experience of the co-operative model and values

Recommended Literature

• Sinek, S. (2009). Start with why: How great leaders inspire everyone to take action. New York, N.Y.: Portfolio

• Kim, W. Chan. Mauborgne, Renée. (2005) Blue ocean strategy: how to create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press

16

Objectives

• The basic goal to achieve is to allow participants to get to know one another and to understand the theories of teamwork, defining the way participants interact.

• Define a clear description of the actions and behaviours that promote teamwork and those that hinder it. A baseline for team interaction will be created by the participants, describing the framework, the communication tools, the minimum number of interactions and the contact people.


Participants will be able to:

1. Understand that a team is a system that needs common goals.

2. Motivate themselves and others from the knowledge of the main forces that push a team forward

3. Understand leadership as a working tool

4. Use dialogue clearly and simply to create a learning organisation.

5. Work together in a multicultural environment.

6. Understand the distinct roles of a team

EntreComp Areas and

Competences related

3.4 Working with others

Duration One workshop to work on team development

Description

STRUCTURE/CONTENT:

The key issues that will be worked on are the following;

• The learning organisation; Understanding the learning organisation based on Nonaka and Takeuchi s theories, understanding the basic learning organisation spiral and its main stages, and creating awareness of the need to transfer and convert tacit knowledge into explicit.

• Team vs. group; Based on Katzenbach and Smith’s theories, clarifying the difference between a team and a group, underlining the strengths and weaknesses each one has, mainly based on the development stages.

• Team Development theory; Using the seven steps that Sibbet and Drexler describe in their Team Performance Model, participants will understand the seven steps of a high-performance team and which elements have to be clear among the teamsters to move the team forward.

• Skill Profile; based on Belbin s theories, the different profiles of individuals and their natural role in a team will be analysed.

As well as learning basic tools, we will learn and start using Pre-Motorola and Post-Motorola, using them as the guiding exercises for the session.

TEACHING METHODOLOGY EXAMPLES:

The person in charge of the session will run a team activity linked with team goal clarification and execution.

The Theoretical part of the session will be just an outline of basic knowledge, and the most important part will come by developing a team exercise. The goal of the exercise is to create a working organisation with all the members that can face challenges and learn, defining the goals, commitments and ways of acting of every member, clarifying actions and defining things not to do, best practices and examples.

The facilitator will ask the groups to prepare their own prototypes with these materials:

• A4 papers

• Flipchart paper

• Whiteboard Markers

• Post its, 5 colours

• Wrapping paper

Stickers – coloured dots, stars, rectangular labels, letters and numbers

Once the team has defined the way the organisation will work, each team will have to explain their solution to the rest of the teams.

5.1.2.- Teambuilding

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Expert profile

The coordinator of the session, based on team building and learning, must be someone with experience in team development, deeply understanding what a team is and making participants reflect on elements that allow the growth of a team, and someone used to deal with multidisciplinary and multicultural teams in different environments.


• Experience of team development


• Experience in learning organisation



• Nonaka, I., & Takeuchi, H. (1995). The knowledge-creating company: How Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation. Oxford university press

• Senge, Peter M. (1990). The fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning organization. New York: Random House Business

5. 2 .- UNDERSTANDING CO - OPER ATIVES AND DIVING INTO THEIR

PRINCIPLES AND VALUES

5.2.1.- Understanding the co-ops

Objectives

The Getting to know the co-operative business model is key to understanding what it means to start-up, develop and grow a co-operative; looking into the main differences compared with other business models and their current position within the contemporary economy and what are the driving values and operational strategies and goals behind such businesses. This workshop is an immersion into co-operative culture, their role and the need for them in the current economy, their working approach and its supporting ecosystem, as well as their challenges. Specifically, the participants will get:

• A glance at the main theoretical concepts on why co-operatives exist, what the co-operative principles are, how they operate and their evolution in recent decades.

• A personal contact with local co-operative businesses, as well as a basic understanding of what are the main differences between co-operatives and traditional capital-based enterprises.

• An immersion into the basic co-operative values, such as participation, democracy, solidarity, communication, teamwork, leadership, self-management or transformation.


The participants will be able to:

1. Learn the basic concepts behind the co-operative principles and recognise the differences from the more common capital-based companies in the contemporary world, their legal framework and nature.

2. Identify and understand the co-operative values and the co-operative rationale, why co-operatives are needed and the role they are filling in the socio-economic system.

3. Analyse and describe how co-operatives are operate and how they are implement their values based on case study examples.

4. Visualise and outline how to put in practice the co-operative principles and values.

5. Understand the need to incorporate more viable business projects -embodying different dimensions such as economic, social or environmental - in the current socio-economic system.

6. Identify social and business opportunities in the co-operative world, as well as new trends in co-operative entrepreneurship.

EntreComp Areas and

Competences related

1.1 Spotting opportunities

1.3 Vision

1.4 Valuing ideas

1.5 Ethical and sustainable thinking

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Duration8 working hours. As a common thread, the co-operative topics will be included in all the stages of the training phase when talking about business model, design thinking and working plan.

Description

The stage will include 4 main blocks mixing up discussion, considerations, observation, concept comprehension and overall revision. The schedule would be as follows:

A. Warming up: approaching the main topic and setting the basic learning goals.

B. Contrasting: participants will visit at least two different co-operatives in the local area, preferably co-ops collaborating with the experience phase.

C. Theory input: draw the whole picture, including the basic concepts and definitions around co-operatives and social economy.

D. Considerations and envisioning: to wrap up all the learning from the stage and extract the main conclusions about co-operatives, their nature and their mode of operation.

Each block will contain the following elements:

A. Warming up: a discussion session will be set up starting from wrapping up what was learned in the previous day and, after a short introduction, participants will share their previous experience or knowledge of co-operative/social economy organisations. The main needs and social concerns of business orientation will be shared and discussed, with all participants agreeing on the changes needed in the current business world and looking for the most viable and sustainable business models. The questions leading the discussion will be:

• What do you know about co-operatives or the social economy? Any personal or professional experiences in the field?

• Why do you think these kinds of organisations are needed?

• Which changes are needed in the current socio-economic system and how can a new way of business provide solutions?

• What kind of viable and sustainable businesses do we need?

B. Contrasting: in this block, participants will have the opportunity to visit two co-operative companies in the region. The two co-operatives will differ in terms of age, sector, type or origin.

The visit to each co-operative will consist of a look at the premises, offices or factory, and speaking to some co-operative managers, asking them about their main ideas, working approach, results, and future expectations. The participants will also be able to ask the host questions to the host in a discussion session.

C. Theory input: considering all the previous empirical and experiential inputs, participants will get a basic explanation and understanding of the main theoretical concepts on co-operation, such as the following:

• Co-operative definition, objectives and membership types. The coordination mechanism co-operatives create in the socio-economic system. Their competitive advantages and different types of co-ops according to numbers of stakeholders.

• Co-operative principles, their past evolution and the co-operative values put into practice, such as self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity.

• Co-operatives’ contribution to sustainable economic growth and stable, quality employment, considering for example the World Co-operative Monitor report.

• Co-operative governance and decision-making processes as well as the legal framework of co-operatives regarding responsibilities and opportunities.

• Differences between co-operatives, non-profit organisations and corporations.

• The legal and administrative characteristics of co-operatives according to local and national regulations.

These concepts will be covered, highlighting the main issues and promoting open discussion and practical understanding and implementation; also including lessons learned from the previous co-operative visits.

D. Reflection and visioning: during the last block a wrap up of all the new knowledge and learning from the stage will be done, participants will finish the process extracting the main conclusions on how co-operative firms are tackling the social concerns and offering a new business model that includes strengths but also weaknesses. Also, they will view and reflect on the business opportunities in the current co-operative world and the new trends in co-operative entrepreneurship.

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Expert profile

The coordinator of this stage should be a person with training and experience in the co-operative world, having a clear understanding of co-operative principles, values, governance and operating methods besides experiential knowledge of how co-operative businesses put them into practice. The coordinator must have hosting skills, global vision and a personal network in this field, as well as a deep knowledge about the legal and administrative regulations.


• Experience in the co-operative sector


• Experience in learning organisation



• Udaondo, A. (2002). Arizmendiarrieta: Un proyecto de transformación social. Eskoriatza, Spain: Lanki

• Schwartz, B. (2012). Rippling: How social entrepreneurs spread innovation throughout the world. John Wiley & Sons

Objectives

• The main goal of this sessions is to have a first taste of a co-operative challenge and to mentally prepare for solving the real one during the practical experience.

OTHER GOALS

• To learn how to ask meaningful questions to find meaningful answers

• To understand co-operative business’ needs in a minimum amount of time by asking the right questions

• To learn how to have an interview, face to face or virtual conference, with someone in order to have a meaningful meeting

• To learn to work from a distance with conference calls

• To explore the participant’s own principles and values aligned with those from the co-operative model.


The participants will:

1. Learn and study a challenge using basic information.

2. Gather information for an interview in a limited time.

3. Learn to prepare an interview.

5.2.2. - Understanding a co-operative challenge

During the practical experience the teams will face an innovative challenge, relevant to each of the collaborating co-operatives (see 6.1.- Observation phase and challenge definition). This challenge will be solved using the design thinking tools and methodologies that the participants will learn about in the training and will guide the whole experience. By solving the challenge, the team will gain a deep knowledge of the co-operative model and values, as well as the context of the sector in their region.

It is therefore very important for the teams to understand how to work on a challenge, how to identify it and include the perspective of the co-operative to find a solution. For this exercise, we propose that the challenge should be defined by a co-operative’s representatives, a problem common to the sector in general, such as for example how to connect with young people and encourage them to take on board the co-operative values.

This challenge will guide the participants through the next training stages, learning the tools and methodologies with a co-operative’s sector challenge always in mind, which will also increase their interest in this business model.

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EntreComp Areas and

Competences related

1. Ideas and opportunities

2. Resources

3.1 Taking the initiative

3.2 Planning and management

3.3 Coping with uncertainty, ambiguity and risk


3.5 Learning through experience

Duration 4 working hours

Description

The work will start with an introduction, explaining the session work plan to participants, such us:

• Introducing the challenge by the co-operative’s representative.

• Learning how to create an interview via conference

• Gathering information for the challenge and each team preparing for the interview

• Individual conference with the co-operative’s representative.

• Gathering information and synthesising.

• Explore the participants’ alignment with the co-operative values.

Introduction of the challenge: the co-op’s representative will share a little introduction about the regional co-operative context, with their main business figures. Then, they will explain the challenge they have chosen for the teams to try to solve. We proposed a challenge related to young people and communication, because the participants can empathise with the target public and can identify their own lack of knowledge about the co-operative model, motivating them to learn more about it to give a better solution to the problem faced. This challenge will be used in the next steps of the training, so at this point the teams need to gather all the information possible.

Once the co-op’s representative has completed their presentation with the participants, the facilitator will go for the next topic.

How to create an interview with conference software like Skype or Hangout

As the teams will use conferences and interviews for gathering information to understand the challenges, the expert will share some key issues to consider when you are preparing a conference meeting such us:

• Checking the hardware, making sure it works and updating it if necessary.

• Agreeing the software to be used in the meeting and making sure each member knows how to use it.

• Updating account profiles.

• Finding a proper place to make the call that’s quiet enough and with the right light for the camera.

• Keeping in mind the dress code as if you were in a face-to-face meeting and checking the colour of clothes against the background.

• Sitting down properly.

• Not using the computer keyboard but taking notes on a notebook.

• Preparing the introduction and farewell properly.

• Not waving goodbye.

• Creating an agenda like in any other meeting.

• Preparing the main points you want to discuss in the conference, as well as the questions you want to ask.

• Checking that you have hung up the call before making any remarks.

• Being on time.

• Recording the conference to use later.

Gathering of challenge information and preparation of the interview by each team

Each team will have free time to prepare the interview with the co-operative’s representative.

Conference with the co-operative’s representative

During this period, each team will have the possibility of arranging a 30-minute conference call with the co-op’s representative to personally introduce the challenge. As an alternative, they can have a face to face meeting.

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Description

Conference with the co-operative’s representative

During this period, each team will have the possibility of arranging a 30-minute conference call with the co-op’s representative to personally introduce the challenge. As an alternative, they can have a face to face meeting.

Gathering information and synthesising

Once the conference call is finished, the team will gather all the information from the meeting and check the key points of the challenge (they can do a mind map or diagram with all the info).

Explore the participants’ alignment with the co-operative values

As a final activity, to reinforce the knowledge about the co-operative model and principles, we recommend implementing an “Identity coat of arms” activity, so they can recognise their own values and align them with the co-operative ones, helping them also to define common goals. To find an example of an “Identity coat of arms” procedure and resources needed, we suggest adapting Exercise 1.3 of Gollob, R. and Krapf, P. Teaching Democracy. A collection of models for democratic citizenship and human rights education. Belgium, Council of Europe.

Expert profile

The coordinator of this workshop will be a facilitator. The expert will have knowledge about the co-operatives and their respective challenges.

The facilitator will have experience of meetings using conference software, deep interviews and developing project in networks.

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5. 3 . - COMPLEX PROBLEM-SOLVING METHODOLOGY, DESIGN

THINKING

Objectives

• The third stage of the training phase aims to deliver a methodology to solve complex problems to the future co-operative entrepreneurs. The selected methodology is Design Thinking. This methodology will be used by all the participants to solve a co-operative challenge common to the sector.

• The main goal of the Design Thinking training is for the participants to understand the steps and background behind the methodology, and how to use it in the practical phase.

• Other goals will be:

o To understand some examples of how design thinking is used for innovation challenges.

o To learn the main tools used for the observation phase.

o To learn how to synthesize the information through design thinking tools.

o To learn the basics of ideation.

o To learn how to lead an ideation workshop.

o To learn how to prototype a product or a service.

o To understand how to implement design thinking methodology to solve the challenges of the co-operatives.



1. Understand how to solve a complex problem through design thinking.

2. Plan the steps that the team will have to follow to solve the challenge.

3. Use design thinking tools to understand the complexity of the challenge.

4. Create and guide an ideation workshop.

5. Prototype the chosen ideas, first for testing them and secondly as a tool to explain the solution to the co-operative.

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EntreComp Areas and

Competences related


1.2 Creativity

1.3 Vision

1.4 Valuing ideas


2.1 Self-awareness and self-efficacy

2.2 Motivation and perseverance

2.3 Mobilizing resources

2.5 Mobilizing others







Description

The workshop will have two stages:

-- Experiencing and understanding the methodology

-- Understanding the tools

Experiencing and understanding the methodology.

Before explaining the methodology and with the aim of understanding the method in a deeper way, the coordinator will arrange an experience of how to use it with a challenge.

Through this challenge and following the necessary steps, the participants will understand the basics of the methodology. The expert will use the challenge proposed in 6.2.2 by a co-operative’s representative, common to the sector in general, about how to connect with young people and encourage them to take on board the co-operative values, or any other goals defined together with the organization.

The participants will work with their teammates to find solutions to this challenge.

During the sessions, the facilitator will ask the teams to explore and make notes, and to use the following tools to empathize, understand and crystallize the data.

• Shadowing: How to observe discreetly, so the actors of the business don’t realise that you are observing and making notes, so they will act naturally and will not be conditioned by the observer.

• Actors map: The ecology map is a graph representing the system of actors and their mutual relationships. It provides a systematic view of the service and its context. The graph is built through the observation of the service from a specific point of view that becomes the centre of the whole representation; for example, if the selected subject is the user, the graph will show all the actors starting from their relations with him.

• Personae: The personae are archetypes built after an exhaustive observation of the potential users. Each persona is based on a fictional character whose profile gathers up the features of an existing social group. In this way the personae assume the attributes of the groups they represent: from their social and demographic characteristics, to their own needs, desires, habits and cultural backgrounds.

• Empathy interview: These kinds of interviews are used to understand the users or actors in depth. Normally, one person asks the questions without guiding the answers, and another one takes notes.

• Empathy map: Is a tool used to gain understanding for a targeted persona. Thus, it can be used when you want to deliver a better user experience of the product/service. The process can also identify the things you still don’t know about your users, so you can carry out new research to fill in those gaps.

• Customer journey map: This tool defines the activities for the user of the product or service. Normally the customer journey map is defined through the touchpoints or contact points between the user and the co-operative. Once the touchpoints are defined normally the satisfaction of the customer is evaluated creating the emotional map.

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Description

Once the participants have the information, the teams will share their experience and the tools used in the empathising stage, understanding the different coffee business models and different customer experiences between all the teams.

Right after this, the facilitator will explain the design thinking process method.

The design thinking process to be used will have the following stages.

• Empathise: Get to know the audience you are designing for, by observation and interview.

• Define: Create a point of view that is based on user needs, insights or problems to be solved.

• Ideate: Brainstorm and come up with as many creative solutions as possible.

• Prototype: Build a representation of your ideas to show to others.

• Test: Share the prototyped ideas with your original users for feedback.

The facilitator can use videos, experiences or stories to illustrate the method and its usefulness. Example resources are the following online videos:

https://hbr.org/video/4443548301001/the-explainer-design-thinking

https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_brown_urges_designers_to_think_big

Continuing with the process, the facilitator will explain how to create a point of view.

• A Point of view (POV) is a meaningful and actionable problem statement, which will allow you to ideate in a goal-oriented manner. Your POV captures your design vision by defining the RIGHT challenge to address in the ideation sessions. A POV involves reframing a design challenge into an actionable problem statement. You articulate a POV by combining your knowledge about the user you are designing for, his or her needs and the insights which you’ve come to know in your research or Empathise mode. Your POV should be an actionable problem statement that will drive the rest of your design work. The POV has to be defined like this:

Once all the teams have their Point of view, the facilitator will guide the teams through the art of the Ideation.

First, he will explain what Brainstorming is:

• Brainstorming essentially relies on a group of people coming together with their prior knowledge and research to gather ideas for solving a stated problem. The group will implement the following rules:

o Setting a time limit (< 60 minutes).

o Focus on the topic, starting with a problem statement, point of view, “How might we...?” questions.

o Don’t judge or criticise, (including non-verbal ways).

o Encourage weird, wacky and wild ideas.

Description

o Aim for quantity.

o Build on each other’s ideas.

o Be visual.

o One conversation at a time.

The facilitator will leave the teams time to experience brainstorming with the co-op challenge. Finally, the facilitator will ask the groups to select the best ideas to implement as the final solution per group.

Afterwards the facilitator will show the groups how to make rough prototypes, as used in design thinking process. Rough prototyping is a quick method to build prototypes using all the objects and materials available in that specific moment and location. These elements are used to simulate the service components to better explain an idea to other members of the team.

It is a tool supporting the visualisation of ideas to make sure that all the members of the team are talking about the same thing.

It also contributes to make the process of design more interactive and concrete. The facilitator will explain the different kinds of prototypes, 3d prototypes, paper prototypes, digital prototypes, etc.

The facilitator will ask the groups to prepare their own prototypes; for this, they will be provided with resources such as:

• A4 paper

• Flipchart paper

• Whiteboard markers

• Wooden sticks


• Wrapping paper

• Coloured feathers

• Twist ties and old clips from bread bags

• Bulldog clips

• Pegs

• Plastic bags

• Velcro

• Blu-tack

• Stickers (coloured dots, stars, rectangular labels, letters, numbers…)

• Assorted buttons

• Ribbon

• String

• Plastic cups

• Scissors

• Glue sticks

• Sticky tape

• Stapler

• Hole punch

Once the prototypes are ready each group will have to explain how their solution to the challenge works to the rest of the teams.

Understanding the tools

In this stage, the expert will have to review the methodology explained in the previous session and connect it with the experience the participants had. There will be some doubt resolution and an introduction to how design thinking methods are used in the co-operatives.

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Description

During the session, aside from the tools explained previously, the facilitator will use the following tools in depth:

• Offering map: Its aim is to describe in a synthetic way what the service offers to its users. There is not a standard format for this tool: the offering could be described using words or could be illustrated by images, but most frequently it is visualised through a graph.

This instrument could support the development of the service idea as well the development of some specific solutions, it could be a tool for the implementation of the concept but also for the communication of the service to the final user. In each one of these situations, the offering map will assume different configurations and languages, with reference to the specific aims and receivers involved.

• Blueprint: Is an operational tool that describes the nature and the characteristics of the service interaction in enough detail to verify, implement and maintain it. It is based on a graphical technique that displays the process functions above and below the line of visibility to the customer: all the touchpoints and the back-stage processes are documented and aligned to the user experience.

• Issued cards: Are a physical instrument used as a peg to induce and feed interactive dynamics inside a team. Each card can contain an insight, a picture, a drawing or a description; everything goes to suggest new interpretations of the problem and to induce the assumption from a different point of view. The result is the identification of new criticalities and opportunities in the context of reference. The heterogeneity and simplicity of the contents are required to guarantee the success of this tool.

• Role playing: Some actors, the sample users or the designers themselves perform a hypothetical service experience. The implied condition is thinking that the service really exists, then building a potential journey through some of its functionalities. A possible evolution of this tool consists of the performance of the same scene several times, changing the character profiles on each scene to understand how different users would act in the same situation.

• What if: Making scenarios, this tool is used to teach anyone–entrepreneurs, corporations, and employees–how to unlock innovative thinking by reframing issues, cultivating curiosity, and increasing creativity. The focus of the reframing will be focused in the following 4 topics: 1) Problem space 2) Goal space 3) Consequence 4) Barriers and gaps.

• Specification: Is a written document that grows out of the design process. It describes the aim of the project in a detailed way and the evolution of the ideas developed step by step. The service specification helps the team sharing the design principles they are working on. It could eventually include some drawings, pictures and other relevant documents. This tool becomes essential in the case of long-term processes or projects involving a wide range of figures.

Expert profile

The coordinator of this workshop must be a person with experience teaching design thinking workshops, as well as experience in this methodology and must also be a person used to leading teams.


• Experience of design thinking workshops.

• Experience as a teacher.

• Experience in companies and/or co-operatives.


• Mootee, I. (2013). Design thinking for strategic innovation: What they can’t teach you at business or design school. John Wiley & Sons

• Stickdorn, M., Schneider, J., Andrews, K., & Lawrence, A. (2011). This is service design thinking: Basics, tools, cases (Vol. 1). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

• Brown, T., (2009). Change by design: How design thinking transforms organizations and inspires innovation. New York, NY: HarperBusiness

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27

5.4. - BUSINESS MODEL AS A VALUE CREATION TOOL

Objectives

• The main goal of this session is to provide some resources to the project teams for understanding the problem they are facing, looking for innovative ideas and finding value in outside-the-box solutions.

• Get to know the Business Generation Model Canvas and its use for identifying and ideating innovation triggers.

• Realising the business approach in a co-operative and its implications in terms of competitiveness, innovation and growth.

• Get to know other complementary resources for project management, such as Project Cycle Management (PCM), and others such as the Lean Start-up model for ideation and experimentation.



1. Analyse a business opportunity or idea for a co-operative from the business strategy perspective.

2. Understand the Business Model Generation Canvas as a value creating tool.

3. Extract the potential value created from a business challenge.

4. Understand complementary tools for planning and defining a project, such as the PCM and the Lean Start-up model.

EntreComp Areas and

Competences related


1.2 Creativity

1.3 Vision

1.4 Valuing ideas




2.4 Financial and economic literacy






Description

During this stage, the conceptual framework will be established, followed by the implementation of such concepts and tools to real cases.

From a case study exploration, preferably based on the co-operative model or the social economy, participants will analyse the main elements in the business strategy and triggers to generate value, competitiveness and growth for the co-operative.

While the discussion and conclusions are going on, three tools will be explained and add to the conversation, eliciting learning and practical ideas for problem-solving challenges.

The first tool is based on Osterwalder s theories about Business Model Generation and will be understood by running some exercises related to the case study that allow participants a deeper understanding of the nine blocks of the Canvas and to encourage better use of the tool, focusing in the value generation.

Description

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Business Model Canvas is a synthesised and systematic way of setting a business strategy. Recognising some categories such as key activities, key resources, key partners, value proposition, customer segments, customer relationships, channels, cost structure, and revenue streams, the strategists can set what are the key elements to first understand customer’s needs and appropriate contact channels, find a business opportunity, spur innovation or look for revenue streams according to value generated.

During this session we will again work on the previously proposed co-operative challenge, allowing the team to be clearer on the basics of a co-operative and drawing a future where the co-operatives are willing to be. This challenge will be the one proposed during the first stages of the training by a co-operative’s representative, and would be common to the sector in general, such as for example how to connect with young people and encourage them to take on board the co-operative values.

As a next step, the Lean Start-up model will be explained. This tool will give a base for understanding the experimentation and improvement process in business idea or problem iteration.

BUILDTurni ideas

into products. Build MVP.

LEARNPivot or perserve

strategy.

MEASURESee how

customers respond.

Identify Early Adopters.

KEY PARTNERS KEY ACTIVITIES VALUE PROPOSITIONSCUSTOMER

RELATIONSHIPSCUSTOMER SEGMENTS

Who are our key partners?

Who are our key suppliers?

Which key resources are acquiring from aour partners?

Which key activities do partners perform?

What key activities do our value propositors require?

Customer relationships?

Revenue streams?

What value do we deliver in the customer?

Which one of our customers’ problems are helping to solve?

What bundles of products and services are we offering to each segment?

Which customer needs are we satisfying?

What is the minimum viable product?

How do we get, keep, and grow customers?

Which customer relationships have we established?

How are they integrated with the rest of our business model?

How costly are they?

For whom are we creating value?

Who are our most important customers?

What are the customer archetypes?

KEY RESOURCES CHANNELS

What key resources do our value propositions require?

Our distribution channels?

Revenue streams?

Through which channels do our customer segments want to be reached?

How do other companies reach tehm now?

Which ones work best?

Which ones are most cost-efficient?

How are we integrating them with customer routines?

COST STRUCTURE REVENUE STREAMS

What are the most important costs inherent to our business model?Which key resources are most expensive?Which key activities are most expensive?

For what value are our customers really willing to pay?For what do they currently pay?What is the revenue model?What are the pricing tactics?

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Description

Starting from measuring what customer needs are and how they respond to early experiments, the cycle continues pivoting to a new strategy or persevering in the original one. This basic learning draws us to a re-building of the product/service/idea generated based on customer feedback and success of implementation.

Lean Start-up can also be linked to BMG Canvas by defining, discarding, refining and executing hypotheses and creating Minimum Viable Product MVP to be tested on a real set.

Finally, the basics of PCM tool will be explained to foster project management skills and get to know the logical framework behind any project development.

As stated by the European Commission, projects are planned and carried out following a sequence beginning with an agreed strategy, which leads to an idea for a specific action, oriented towards achieving a set of objectives, which then is formulated, implemented, and evaluated with a view to improving the strategy and further action.

PCM determines particular phases of the project and outlines specific actions and approaches to be taken within these phases. The PCM approach provides for planning and review processes throughout a cycle and allows for multiple project cycles to be supported.

The project cycle also provides a structure to ensure that stakeholders are consulted, and relevant information is available throughout the life of the project.

REFINE

BAD IDEA

GREAT IDEA

MVP

HYPOTHESIS

UVP

How does this alingn to our

business modelFocus

Is this worth solving?Let’s test

Will the market buy it?Let’s build and test with

early adopters

ProductMarket fitSales and Marketing roadmap

1. Problem?2- Solution?3- Pay?

How does the business fit together?

What’s our next great idea?

Build the business!Scale executionOperationsFind partners

EXECUTE

PROGRAMMING

IDENTIFICATION

IMPLEMENTATION FORMULATION

EVALUATION AND AUDIT

EU PROJECT CYCLE

MANGEMENT

Expert profile• The coordinator of this workshop will be a facilitator, with ample understanding on the main topics of

this session.

• The facilitator will have experience on teaching business strategy tools and implementation.


• Ries, E. (2011). The lean start-up: How today’s entrepreneurs use continuous innovation to create radically successful businesses. Danvers, MA: Crown Publishing Group

• Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y., In Clark, T., & Smith, A. (2010). Business model generation: A handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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5. 5 . - WORKING PL AN

Objectives

• Defining the main goals and secondary goals of a project.

• Clarifying milestones and key indicators together with the co-operatives.

• Identifying the biggest challenges that will be faced during the process.

• Describing the steps and tools used in every step, making a calendar and deciding the dates for delivering the committed materials.

• Describing each part of the process and setting a leader for each block.



1. Define an action plan to achieve a common and clear goal.

2. Identify and classify primary, secondary and less important goals.

3. Develop the ability to plan for achieving pre-defined goals.

4. Identify the most accurate tools and when and how to use them to fulfil personal, team and customer expectations.

5. Manage time.

6. Define goal-oriented tasks.

7. Plan short, medium and long-term procedures.

8. Communicate accurately to work efficiently and to fulfil co-operators’ expectation.

9. Lead in multicultural, multidisciplinary and stressful real work situations.

10. Realise that different team member profiles are adaptable for different tasks and manage better according to individual’s strength and weaknesses.

EntreComp Areas and

Competences related










Description

The main topic and goal for the session will be to plan the way teams and individuals will act during the challenge, as well as defining co-operative expectations with their representatives and ways of interacting.

The stage will start with an activity allowing participants to understand customer satisfaction theories, based on P. Kotler satisfaction formula, needed to identify customer expectations, perception and satisfaction.

Agile working methodologies will also be covered, as well as some SCRUM* techniques and working routines, which will be overviewed, so teams can define the best way of acting and interacting within the team and along with the co-operative customer.

* SCRUM is a framework for project management that emphasizes teamwork, accountability and iterative progress toward a well-defined goal. The framework begins with a simple premise: Start with what can be seen or known. After that, track the progress and tweak as necessary. The three pillars of Scrum are transparency, inspection and adaptation

The baseline tool and guide for the planning will be David Sibbet s Gameplan, used as the arrow that allows teams to reach the target.

Teams will describe precisely:

• Who is who: Who is every single team member, what is his/her role inside the team, what is expected from them and what is their level of commitment.

• Target: Precise description of every main goal and the identified secondary goals. Creation of an explicit crystallisation where all of them are clear and that should be approved by the customer.

• Success factors: Identification of the most relevant success factors and sharing it with the customer. Measuring the importance each of them has and why.

• Challenges: Forecast of the main challenges the project will face and planning how to act to avoid them or minimise the effect.

• Stages and tasks: Using the tools learned during the Design Thinking workshop and the personal background of the team, and after having done the reflection of the above described items, teams will plan which are the most useful tools to be applied, when to implement them and in which order, to decide what and who will lead every implementation.

• As a result, for this activity a calendar with all the actions will be launched by the team, the purpose of this calendar being to be used as a guideline or a roadmap, that will allow members to understand where they are, where is the team, what is the movement, and where are we going. Also, having an objective perception of delays or deviations that have occurred.

• Responsible: Every task must have a manager or a leader, with clear goals, indicators, deadlines, a systematic understanding of why it is important and who or which part of the project is linked or affected if any change occurs, as well as the way of communicating and with whom.

• The theoretical knowledge of this part is simple and mainly a summing up of all the previous workshops, emphasising the importance of having a written plan, clear for every member of the team and the co-operative.

The practical activity during this workshop will be the creation of a canvas with each team s Gameplan. The facilitator will ask the groups to prepare their own, and for this will provide the following materials:

• A4 paper

• Flipchart paper

• Whiteboard markers


• Wrapping paper

• Stickers (coloured dots, stars, rectangular labels, letters, numbers…)

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Expert profile

The coordinator of the Gameplan session must be someone that has experience in co-operative development, planning activities, helping people prioritise and be goal oriented.

Understanding of the co-operative needs and the daily workflow of a co-operative is also needed, being able to adapt the deliverables and to regulate interactions and make them meaningful for a co-operative, measuring the quantity of interactions, the quality of the deliverables and the priorities of the co-op.

Some familiarity with graphic facilitation will also be valuable, as tools need to be visually explained.

• The coordinator will have at least the following experience:

• Experience of strategy development.

• Experience as team mentor in strategic programmes


• Sibbet, D. (2011). Visual Teams: Graphic Tools for Commitment, Innovation, and High Performance. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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THE CO-OPERATIVE EXPERIENCE PHASES

LEARNING SPACES

The Training Phase is divided in four stages focused on implementing the programme methodology and all the tools the participants learned during the training, to first deeply understand the context and reality of the co-operative hosting the team, then to identify together a strategic challenge for the co-op that is suitable for the team in terms of skills and time, and finally the processes of ideation, prototyping and pitching of the selected solution

During this practical phase, which we recommend dedicate twelve weeks for, the teams will work at the co-operatives’ facilities, guided by the expert mentors and the co-operators that will act as tutors. The importance of collaborating with local co-ops is not only for facilitating the logistics and the participants access to the experience, but also to create a relationship between them and the local social economy and co-operative sector of their regions, a relationship that can continue in the future.

The participants will go deeper into the concepts and skills learned during the training phase and will reinforce them with a learning-by-doing approach. During this phase they will also complement the concepts already introduced and will work aligned with the three EntreComp conceptual model areas:

1. Ideas and Opportunities

2. Resources

3. Into Action

6

OBSERVATION AND CHALLENGE

DEFINITION

IDEATION AND PROTOTYPING

PITCHINGKNOWLEDGEGATHERING

FOUR WEEKS FIVE WEEKS TWO WEEKS ONE WEEK

6. 1 .- OBSERVATION PHASE AND CHALLENGE DEFINITION

This stage is a key point in the implementation of the programme. It has two objectives: to integrate the team in the co-operative’s structure, understanding its business model and having a clear picture of the context and situation, on the one hand, and on the other defining together with the co-op the challenge, the “problem” that the team will try to solve in an innovative way using the entrepreneurial tools gained during the training. This challenge, a real one that is both meaningful and strategic for the co-operative, will guide the practical experience and has two beneficiaries:

• The team. The students will get thorough knowledge of the co-operative sector by gathering the information and knowledge needed for solving the challenge, and will also apply in a practical way, and to a real problem, their entrepreneurial knowledge and tools.

• The co-operative. The co-ops will be in contact with young university students and entrepreneurs, allowing an interchange of knowledge and new visions that may help them to connect with young customers, as well as identifying new

products, markets and co-operators that may join the sector.

6.1.1.- Observation

Objectives

The team’s main goal for this period is to deeply understand the context and reality of the co-operative and to identify the challenge they will try to solve.

The team will have the following goals:

• To create an atmosphere of trust between the co-operative and the team members.

• To understand the challenges of the co-operative and other connected goals.

• To define who is who within the challenge.

• To make connections within the co-operative.


The team will be able to:

1. Know all the stakeholders involved with the co-operative and their role during the process.

2. Know other co-operative members and create a collaborative atmosphere.

3. Understand the co-operative’s context, reality, working process, dynamics and strategies.

4. Define different tasks according to the different team member profiles.

EntreComp Areas and

Competences related


1.3 Vision

1.4 Valuing ideas




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Deliverables

Each team will have to prepare a report with the following minimum content:

• Co-operative description including:

o Name of the co-operative.

o Co-operative location.

o Number of employees (% co-operative members).

o Organisation chart.

o Invoicing /turnover the last 3 years.

o Sector.

o Main product/service.

o Main added value (competitive advantage) of the co-operative.

o Level of internationalisation.

o Expected outcome.

• Brief description of the context and actual situation.

• Actor/stakeholders map.

• Tools used in the observation phase.

• Description of the product/business of the co-operative.

Description

After the first few days, during which the participants will visit the facilities, and be presented to the staff and guided through the production process, the team will establish together with the co-operative tutor a list of data and documents needed to get the whole picture of the business context and situation and will arrange a calendar for meeting the key persons in the different co-operative areas.

The mentors will have face-to-face or Skype meetings with the team to check what the participants have planned and support to ensure they are advancing in the right way. The meetings will have the following agenda:

• Review of the work done so far.

• Evaluation of the key discoveries made.

• Evaluation of the interviews carried out.

• Evaluation of the barriers/ problems found so far.

• Evaluation of the next steps.

• Evaluation of the tools to be used to unlock the barriers.

• Evaluation of the sources.

• Evaluation of the way to access information.

The mentors will keep in mind the tools described in the design thinking workshops and other tools that could be useful for the observation phase.

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6.1.2.- Challenge definition

ObjectivesCreating both a frame to define the challenge and a guide as a helpful tool for the actors involved, allowing them to describe the challenge in its appropriate context and defining their expectations.

Objectives

The team’s main goal for this period is to deeply understand the context and reality of the co-operative and to identify the challenge they will try to solve.


• To create an atmosphere of trust between the co-operative and the team members.

• To understand the challenges of the co-operative and other connected goals.

• To define who is who within the challenge.

• To make connections within the co-operative.



1. Define the different challenges faced by the co-operative and link them with their own knowledge and capacities.

2. Understand the need to incorporate viable solutions -embodying different dimensions such as economic, social or environmental - in the co-operative’s strategy.

3. Identify social and business opportunities for the co-operative, as well as new trends in co-operative entrepreneurship.

4. Select the challenge the team will be focused on solving during the experience.

5. Identify all the stakeholders involved in the challenge selected

6. Coordinate with the co-operative members and get their feedback and approval.

EntreComp Areas and

Competences related


1.2 Creativity

1.3 Vision

1.4 Valuing ideas








Criteria

• The challenge must be meaningful as well as important to the co-operative, because if their solution is satisfactory it will most probably be implemented. It should also be fully connected to the co-operative’s activities and mission.

• The contents will be related to innovation or co-operative entrepreneurship, creating new business ideas, etc., and will be in line with the team participants’ knowledge and skills.

• The challenge must be able to be fully completed during the practical experience period.

• One co-operative member must be the challenge “owner” and must dedicate time to the team, explaining the co-operative characteristics and answering questions which frame and guide the team towards the expected results.

• The challenge solution should not be too easy or obvious, but have some complexity, requiring multidisciplinary knowledge for its completion.

• The challenge has to be exciting for the team, so they quickly engage with it, are able to identify the co-operative’s needs and feel eager to solve it.

Working space

The co-operative must provide a working space- fully internet connected- for the team and allow them to have some relevant information about the co-operative, production and quality issues etc. so they can wholly comprehend the situation, as well as the boundaries and expectations of the co-operative.

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Working procedure

The co-operative and the team have to create a shared working plan, assisted by the mentors, scheduling the most important elements and defining the shared working activities.

An accurate definition of the expectations is crucial for the satisfaction of both parties, the team solving the challenge and the co-operative.

Deliverables

Memo of the process and selected ideas, with minimum:

• Title of the challenge.

• Description.

• Actor/stakeholders’ map of the challenge.

• Tools used for the definition of the challenge.

• Co-operative’s feedback and agreement.

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6. 2 .- IDEATION AND PROTOT YPING PHASE

6.2.1.- Ideation phase

Objectives

The main goal now for the team is the creation of a range of ideas to come up with the solution.

Other goals for the team will be:

• Exploring the business model of the co-operative.

• Understanding the real value proposition for the customers.

• Identifying new business areas where the co-operative can launch products or services.



1. Use design thinking tools to understand the complexity of the challenge.

2. Analyse the different ideas proposed to solve the co-operative’s challenge from a business strategy perspective.

3. Apply concepts of competitiveness, innovation and growth from the perspective of the co-operative values and model.

4. Use tools for planning and defining a project/idea, such as the PCM and the Lean Start-up model.

5. Define different tasks according to the different team member profiles.

EntreComp Areas and

Competences related


1.2 Creativity

1.3 Vision

1.4 Valuing ideas








Description

The mentors will have face-to-face (or Skype) meetings with the team, to check what they are doing and give indications to advance the solution process. The mentors will guide the team and will make sure the team use the following process:

1. Brainstorming: The team will make brainstorming sessions, internal and with other actors such as the tutors and co-operative members.

The sessions will use the following process;

• 200 ideas in 1 hour: the first step of a brainstorming is to create a high quantity of ideas. For this, the team will be pushed to generate the maximum quantity of ideas, their amount and not their quality being the main issue here. They will be given one hour.

• The second step is to select ideas from the previous ones, a large quantity also being the expected result.

• The third step of the process is to gather these ideas in families, according to their similarities, needed resources, target, value, etc.

• After this, the –roughly- best group of ideas will be selected.

• Another ideation exercise over the generated ideas will be then done, via a bunch of questions making people approach them from different perspectives.

2. The team will then use this last selection of ideas and start working on defining the value proposition of each one.

3. Every idea has to identify its market; size, characteristics, accessibility, competition, etc.

One of the most important goals for the mentors during this process is to keep the team with a positive stress but no anxiety, and the best method to achieve this is to define properly its timeline, clarifying the needed time for each part of the process.

Deliverable

Each team will have to prepare a report at the end of the ideation stages with the following minimum content:

• List of ideas from the Brainstorming.

• List of a broad bunch of pre-selected ideas with a description of the value proposition.

• Identification of the market for each idea

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6.2.2 – Prototyping

In fact, ideation and prototyping are a connected cycle, as the reflections and lessons learned by creating prototypes will show the team pros and contras of each idea selected and will get them back to the ideation phase to include new approaches or even to star with the process again with a new vision.

Keeping that in mind, we will now focus on how the teams can create prototypes from the ideas selected.

IDEATION

PROTOTYPING

HYPOTHESIS

VALIDATION

Objectives

The team must prototype the solutions they find the most suitable for the co-operative.


• Selecting the best solution for the co-operative.

• Selecting the best ideas to implement the solution.

• Creating prototypes to present to the co-operative tutor and to contrast the feasibility of the solutions.

• Selecting the final prototype



1. Prototype the chosen ideas, first for testing them and secondly as a tool to explain the solution to the co-operative.

2. Select the best solution for the co-operative challenge and prototype it.

3. Define an action plan to achieve the solution, according to the different team member profiles.

EntreComp Areas and

Competences related


1.2 Creativity

1.4 Valuing ideas






2.5 Mobilize others






Description

The mentors will have face-to-face or Skype meetings with the team to check what they are doing and to give indications to speed up the solution process. The mentors will guide the team and will make sure they use the following process:

1. The team has big bunch of ideas to solve the challenge

2. The team agrees in the selection criteria with the co-operative tutor and makes a selection according to it. They can use a criteria matrix or similar.

3. The team agrees in the type of prototype they need for showing the concepts; paper prototypes, solid prototype; Business model canvas, videos, etc…

4. The team develops the ideas in the prototype.

5. The team tries to test these ideas rapidly in the prototype to develop a better one.

The mentors will keep in mind the tools described in the design thinking training, as well as others they consider could be useful for the prototyping phase.

Deliverable

Each team will have to prepare a report at the end of the week with the following minimum content:

• Full list of ideas they have been considering from the start

• Selection criteria agreed with the co-operative.

• Selected ideas.

• Reasons why the team is selecting one type of prototype and not another.

• Refused prototypes.

• The final prototype itself, developed

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6. 3 .- PITCHING PHASE

Objectives

• The main goal for the team is analysing the implementation of the selected solution and the way will affect the current situation of the co-operative.

• Also, the team will prepare and make a presentation of the best ideas in an elevator pitch format that allows the co-operative to understand the solution found during the experience.



1. Analyse all the needed resources and the viability of the final solution selected, for its validation.

2. Define an action plan for the co-operative to achieve the solution.

3. Design a strategy to present the solution.

4. Prepare an elevator pitch presentation for the co-operative.

EntreComp Areas and

Competences related

1.2 Creativity









Description

The mentors will have face-to-face (or Skype) meetings with the team to check what they are doing and give pointers to speed up the pitching process. The most important role for the mentors in this phase is to ensure the quality of the deliverables the team will provide for the co-operative.

The mentors will guide the team and make sure they follow the following process:

1. Analysis and deep shaping on how the defined prototype is bringing a real solution to the real problem.

2. Description of the gains obtained by implementing the solution.

3. Reflection on what collateral problems or solutions the new solution could generate.

4. Collateral issues by implementing the solution.

5. Analysis of what could be negatively and positively affected by the new solution.

For the pitching presentation, following Guy Kawasaki s theories, some elements are important to reflect and work on:

1. Identifying the audience.

2. Describing the problem.

3. Describing the solution and why it is worth doing it.

4. Describing the secret sauce for success.

5. Analysing what is expected from the audience and what and how it will be asked.

This presentation should be short and sharp.

Deliverable

At the end of the stage, each team will have to prepare a report with the following minimum content:

• Presentation of the selected ideas, using a Business Model Canvas.

• Answers to the considerations that took place during the process, in a format both useful for the co-operative and allowing it to work deeper on them even after having completed the ECOOPE programme.

• A video with the pitching presentation to the co-operative.

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6.4.- KNOWLEDGE GATHERING

Objectives

The main goal of this final activity is to gather all the knowledge and learning from the experience the teams have undergone. In this activity the main outcomes of the project will be highlighted and explained in terms of benefits for every stakeholder, the resources used, limitations and problems experienced and learning internalised.



1. Collect the key learnings and findings

2. Make a common presentation of the challenges and the solutions defined by each team

3. Create a common document with the most important topics of the experience

4. Make a self and peer assessment of the skills and competencies development, as well as the understanding of the co-operative model.

EntreComp Areas and

Competences related

1.3 Vision

1.4 Valuing ideas



Description

For concluding the ECOOPE programme, a face-to face session will be held with all teams for working on collecting together the key learning and to crystallise the core topics of the process. This will happen first individually, then as a team and related to the project. Afterwards all participants will share the goal of creating a common document covering the most important topics.

The process will include the following elements:

1. Personal Post-Motorola: every person will take a time to write down his/her own Post-Motorola. Post-Motorola is a simple tool for planning and assessing projects. It was originally created in the American company, Motorola, for following up ongoing projects in an easy and consistent way. In a learning context, Post-Motorola helps learners to go into a learning situation or task having thought about what they want to achieve, having their eyes open to the learning opportunities as they go through it, and knowing at the end they are going to capture and record what they learned, with a view to doing differently or better next time.

2. Team Post-Motorola: in a second phase the project teams will meet, share their individual Post-Motorolas and create a team one, including all the individual learning and knowledge created.

3. Company Post-Motorola summing up the process, things to improve and conclusion, accuracy and applicability of the solutions. Also, feedback analysing what the project has created inside the co-operative, how meaningful has it been for the participants and the co-operative members.

4. Gathering and analysing deliverables per project: in a third step the teams will review all the deliverables created during the process, evaluating if they were: relevant, appropriate, were of good quality and sufficient in content. A conclusion will be drafted from this evaluation process.

5. Common sharing and conclusions: all teams will have a common session for sharing all their learning and conclusions from the process.

6. Common final report submission: finally, as a collective piece of work, a final report will be created including a summary of Post-Motorolas, created knowledge, best tools, and key learning summing up and crystallisation, as well as all the graphic and visual evidence of the process.

7. Self and peer assessment regarding the skills and competencies developed during the whole process, including the understanding of the co-operative model and if their own values are now aligned with the co-operative principles and values, and how.

Expert profile

The facilitator of this activity will work to ensure the analysis, debate and extraction of main learning and knowledge created during the process has been carried out properly. His/her expertise must be as team facilitator or ‘Art-of-Hosting’ skills; bringing to light all the explicit and tacit knowledge produced during the process.

Final Deliverables from the training programme: Gameplan

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Derivables

Every team explains how they defined their commitment to work as a team, their working routines and what was the agreement between team members.

Teams also clarifies the way they worked as teams, how they managed the weekly work load and the key factors of teamwork. Also, the interaction with the team’s mentors and tutors should be described. Deliverables to the co-operative must be identified, described and scheduled.

Other sub-deliverables created during this phase can also be gathered, such as: team behaviour agreement, reflection on co-operative values and principles, design thinking tools learned, description and explanation of proposed common challenge, business model canvas of the solutions…

Deliverables from the Observation phase

Observation report with the following content:

• Co-operative description.

• Brief description of the context and actual situation.

• Actor/stakeholder map of the co-operative.

• Tools used in the observation phase.

• Description of the product/business of the co-operative.

• Title of the challenge.

• Description of the challenge.

• Actor/stakeholder map of the challenge.

• Tools used for the definition of the challenge.

• Co-operative’s feedback and agreement

Deliverables from the Ideation and prototyping phase

Report with the following content:

• List of ideas that emerged from the Brainstorming.

• List of a broad range of pre-selected ideas with a description of the value proposition.

• Identification of the market segment for each idea.

• Full list of ideas they have been considering from the start.

• Selection criteria agreed with the co-operative.

• Selected ideas.

• Reasons why the team is selecting one type of prototype and not another.

• Rejected prototypes.

• The final prototype itself, developed.

Deliverables from implementation and pitching

Report with the following content:

• Presentation of the selected ideas, using a Business Model Canvas.

• Answers to the considerations that took place during the process, in a format both useful for the co-operative and allowing it to remain useful even after having completed the ECOOPE programme.

• A video with the pitching presentation to the co-operative.

Final collective deliverables for all the teams

A final report will be created including a summary of Post-Motorolas, created knowledge, best tools, and key learning summing up and crystallisation, as well as all the graphic and visual evidence from the process.

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CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Although we have designed this with a complete experience in mind, this is an open source programme. Any European educational institution or organisation is welcome to adapt the programme to their own strategies and context. However, there are some recommendations emerging from the findings and conclusions of the programme we want to share.

7.1.- Co-operation for young entrepreneurs - Innovative entrepreneurship for co-operatives

During the design of this programme it was clear to us that the co-operative model is quite unknown among young university students but not necessarily due to a lack of interest, but because it’s not usually included in the general education we receive in Europe. For these young Europeans, knowing about co-operatives and the social economy relies more in their own surrounding circumstances.

Also, during the implementation of the pilot experience developed for testing the methodology, the participants reaffirmed our starting point that in many ways the co-operative model has a lot to offer them. It can become a way for them to start their entrepreneurial projects, combining different skills and knowledge, and it gives them the opportunity to interact professionally with a new sector as they did not know it was so diverse and important economically speaking. But the co-operative model also has values and principles that many young Europeans share, even more after the impacts of the financial crisis that not only raised the unemployment rates but also eroded working conditions.

So, for these young students, future entrepreneurs, it should be not only about the quantity of economic opportunities but also the quality of the labour market, as well as the impact in their local communities and social contexts.

During the whole process we developed, the co-operatives and platforms we contacted were very interested in the experience for two main reasons. First, it was an opportunity to increase awareness of the co-operative model and values among young people, an important issue for an ageing sector that is not renewing its members as quickly as is necessary.

But it was also an opportunity for them to get to know the Lean Start-up and Design Thinking methodologies, and they expressed their interest in introducing these concepts in their strategies and products. The programme aims to do that by facilitating the collaboration of entrepreneurial teams solving co-operative’s challenges, but it’s also important that the co-operatives participate in the training phase, not only contributing to explain the co-op sector, but actively learning about the same tools given to the students.

By doing this the co-operative tutors will be better prepared for guiding the teams during the practical phase, as they will know the methodology the participants are going to use, but also the co-operative will have first-hand knowledge of concepts that may improve their competitiveness and open new markets

7

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7.2.- Think globally, act locally

“Local character is thus no mere accidental old-world quaintness, as its mimics think and say. It is attained only in course of adequate grasp and treatment of the whole environment, and in active sympathy with the essential and characteristic life of the place concerned.”

From “Cities in Evolution”. Patrick Geddes, 1915

The co-operative model is not merely a viable business model. It has values and principles that create a positive impact in the local and global context, contributing to sustainable development, committed to democratic decision-making processes, women’s empowerment and helping to fight against climate change, among other global challenges.

Although we recommend that the collaborating co-operatives have an international/European interest regarding sales, market opportunities, interactions, future goals and strategies… they should be located in the region where the students live. This will facilitate the training experience as:

• The students, the co-operatives’ members and the rest of the stakeholders will speak the same language, facilitating communication, identification, interaction and knowledge sharing.

• The students won’t need to move to another location and will be able to continue living in their own houses or residences, facilitating the logistics.

• The students may better understand the context and situation of the co-operative, as they already know the region and culture where it is based.

• The laws and regulations regarding the co-operative sector and the market will be more familiar to them.

But there’s also another crucial advantage: if the students get to know local members of their region’s co-operative and social economy sector, it will be easier for them in the future to become part of it, either as co-operators themselves or as conscious members of their communities that can collaborate with the sector professionally or even as customers.

Being involved with the co-operative model also means being involved with the co-operative values, and we strongly believe that that will not only create opportunities for young Europeans at an employment level, but also contribute to a better society

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7.3.- The European dimension

This training programme has a deep European core. Conceived and designed within the ECOOPE project, co-operatives and university students from four European countries participated in the pilot experience implemented in 2018 to test the proposed methodology.

The ECOOPE consortium aims to keep facilitating knowledge sharing from the different experiences based on this programme that will be developed in Europe in the future, enabling the promoting institutions to organise meetings with the students, and visits to the co-operatives that collaborate in each region, so all of them can benefit from the interchange.

This option will introduce an interchange travel between different ECOOPE training programmes, where different student teams from different countries will travel to each other’s regions for a one-week visit, including a tour around the collaborating co-operatives to learn about the context of the model and working sessions to collaborate in each other’s challenges.

Creating a European ECOOPE network will multiply the possible future interactions among young co-operative entrepreneurs at a European level and will create a community of educational institutions aiming to promote this model and values

ANEXESANNEX 1: THE CO-OPERATIVE VALUES AND PRINCIPLES

As reflected in the Statement on the Co-operative Identity, from “Guidance Notes to the Co-operative Principles”. International Co-operative Alliance, 2015.

Cooperative values

Cooperatives are based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity. In the tradition of their founders, cooperative members believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others.

Co-operative Principles

The cooperative principles are guidelines by which cooperatives put their values into practice.

1. Voluntary and Open Membership

Cooperatives are voluntary organisations, open to all persons able to use their services and willing to accept the responsibilities of membership, without gender, social, racial, political or religious discrimination.

2. Democratic Member Control

Cooperatives are democratic organisations controlled by their members, who actively participate in setting their policies and making decisions. Men and women serving as elected representatives are accountable to the membership. In primary cooperatives members have equal voting rights (one member, one vote) and co-operatives at other levels are also organised in a democratic manner.

3. Member Economic Participation

Members contribute equitably to, and democratically control, the capital of their cooperative. At least part of that capital is usually the common property of the cooperative. Members usually receive limited compensation, if any, on capital subscribed as a condition of membership. Members allocate surpluses for any or all of the following purposes: developing their cooperative, possibly by setting up reserves, part of which at least would be indivisible; benefiting members in proportion to their transactions with the cooperative; and supporting other activities approved by the membership.

4. Autonomy and Independence

Cooperatives are autonomous, self-help organisations controlled by their members. If they enter into agreements with other organisations, including governments, or raise capital from external sources, they do so on terms that ensure democratic control by their members and maintain their cooperative autonomy.

5. Education, Training and Information

Co-operatives provide education and training for their members, elected representatives, managers, and employees so they can contribute effectively to the development of their co-operatives. They inform the general public -particularly young people and opinion leaders- about the nature and benefits of co-operation.

6. Cooperation among Co-operatives

Cooperatives serve their members most effectively and strengthen the cooperative movement by working together through local, national, regional and international structures.

7. Concern for Community

Cooperatives work for the sustainable development of their communities through policies approved by their members.

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8

ANNEX 2: AREAS AND COMPETENCES OF THE ENTRECOMP CONCEPTUAL MODEL

Extracted from Bacigalupo, M., Kamplylis, P., Punie, I., Van den Brande, L. (2016). EntreComp: The Entrepreneurship Competence Framework. Luxembourg, Publications Office of the European Union.

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Areas Competences Hints Descriptors

1. Ideas and opportunities


Use your imagination and abilities to identify opportunities for creating value

(In the context of EntreComp framework, entrepreneurship competence is regarded both as an individual and collective capacity.)

• Identify and seize opportunities to create value by exploring the social, cultural and economic land-scape

• Identify needs and challenges that need to be me

• Establish new connections and bring together scattered elements of the landscape to create opportunities to create value

1.2 CreativityDevelop creative and purposeful ideas

• Develop several ideas and opportunities to create value, including better solutions to existing and new challenges

• Explore and experiment with innovative approaches

• Combine knowledge and resources to achieve valuable effects

1.3. VisionWork towards your vision of the future

• Imagine the future

• Develop a vision to turn ideas into action

• Visualise future scenarios to help guide effort and action

1.4 Valuing ideasMake the most of ideas and opportunities

• Judge what value is in social, cultural and eco-nomic terms

• Recognise the potential an idea has for creating value and identify suitable ways of making the most out of it


Assess the con-sequences and impact of ideas, opportunities and actions

• Assess the consequences of ideas that bring value and the effect of entrepreneurial action on the target community, the market, society and the environment

• Reflect on how sustainable long-term social, cultural and economic goals are, and the course of action chosen

• Act responsibly

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2. Resources


Believe in yourself and keep developing

• Reflect on your needs, aspirations and wants in the short, medium and long term

• Identify and assess your individual and group strengths and weaknesses

• Believe in your ability to influence the course of events, despite uncertainty, setbacks and temporary failures


Stay focused and don't give up

• Be determined to turn ideas into action and satisfy your need to achieve

• Be prepared to be patient and keep trying to achieve your long-term individual or group aims

• Be resilient under pressure, adversity, and temporary failure


Gather and manage the resources you need

• Get and manage the material, non-material and digital resources needed to turn ideas into action

• Make the most of limited resources

• Get and manage the competences needed at any stage, including technical, legal, tax and digital competences


Develop financial and economic know how

• Estimate the cost of turning an idea into a value-creating activity

• Plan, put in place and evaluate financial decisions over time

• Manage financing to make sure my value-creating activity can last over the long term

2.5. Mobilizing othersInspire, enthuse and get others onboard

• Inspire and enthuse relevant stakeholders

• Get the support needed to achieve valuable out-comes

• Demonstrate effective communication, persuasion, negotiation and leadership

3. Into action

3.1 Taking the initiative Go for it

• Initiate processes that create value

• Take up challenges

• Act and work independently to achieve goals, stick to intentions and carry out planned tasks


Prioritize, organize and follow-up

• Set long-, medium- and short-term goals

• Define priorities and action plans

• Adapt to unforeseen changes

3.3 Coping with uncertainty, ambiguity

and risk

Make decisions dealing with uncertainty, ambiguity and risk

• Make decisions when the result of that decision is uncertain, when the information available is partial or ambiguous, or when there is a risk of unintended outcomes

• Within the value-creating process, include structured ways of testing ideas and prototypes from the early stages, to reduce risks of failing

• Handle fast-moving situations promptly and flexibly


Team up, collaborate and net-work

• Work together and co-operate with others to develop ideas and turn them into action

• Network

• Solve conflicts and face up to competition positively when necessary

3.5. Learning through experience

Learn by doing

• Use any initiative for value creation as a learning opportunity

• Learn with others, including peers and mentors

• Reflect and learn from both success and failure (your own and other people’s)

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ANNEX 3: LITERATURE

Bacigalupo, M., Kamplylis, P., Punie, I., Van den Brande, L. (2016). EntreComp: The Entrepreneurship Competence Framework. Luxembourg, Publications Office of the European Union.

Birchall, J., and Ketilson, L. H. (2009). Resilience of the cooperative business model in times of crisis. Geneva: International Labour Organisation

Brown, T., (2009). Change by design: How design thinking transforms organizations and inspires innovation. New York, NY: HarperBusiness

El-Youssef, H., Gillian, L., and Rodgers, D. (2015) Guidance Notes to the Co-operative Principles. International Co-operative Alliance

Gollob, R. and Krapf, P. Teaching Democracy. A collection of models for democratic citizenship and human rights education. Belgium, Council of Europe.

Kim, W. Chan. Mauborgne, Renée. (2005) Blue ocean strategy: how to create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press

Mootee, I. (2013). Design thinking for strategic innovation: What they can’t teach you at business or design school. John Wiley & Sons

Nonaka, I., & Takeuchi, H. (1995). The knowledge-creating company: How Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation. Oxford university press

Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y., In Clark, T., & Smith, A. (2010). Business model generation: A handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Ries, E. (2011). The lean start-up: How today’s entrepreneurs use continuous innovation to create radically successful businesses. Danvers, MA: Crown Publishing Group

Schwartz, B. (2012). Rippling: How social entrepreneurs spread innovation throughout the world. John Wiley & Sons

Senge, Peter M. (1990). The fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning organization. New York: Random House Business

Sibbet, D. (2011). Visual Teams: Graphic Tools for Commitment, Innovation, and High Performance. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Sinek, S. (2009). Start with why: How great leaders inspire everyone to take action. New York, N.Y.: Portfolio

Stickdorn, M., Schneider, J., Andrews, K., & Lawrence, A. (2011). This is service design thinking: Basics, tools, cases (Vol. 1). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Udaondo, A. (2002). Arizmendiarrieta: Un proyecto de transformación social. Eskoriatza, Spain: Lanki

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ECOOPE | Project management

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